Inability of the bladder to function normally in a patient can involve problems of urinary retention. This dysfunction can result from a number of different causes, such as extensive abdominal surgical operations, infection, various diseases, etc. If the sphincter muscle is too tight or the bladder muscles are too lax the patient may be able to urinate but may be unable to completely empty the bladder during urination.
Patients with urinary retention, as well as other issues, require catheterization to enable the bladder to be satisfactorily emptied. In some cases a urine collection bag and an indwelling urethral catheter are used, the catheter forming a passageway from the bladder to the externally-carried collection bag which can regularly be emptied. This arrangement, however, is cumbersome and moreover leaves the patient at increased risk of infection, bacteria being able to grow and track along the catheter from the collection bag or around the catheter along the urethra.
The alternative and more acceptable solution is the insertion of a transient urethral catheter to allow the patient to void in the bathroom when appropriate or on a predetermined time schedule, such as every three to four hours. For women, this intermittent self-catheterization can be very difficult to carry out, since the patient must be able to locate the urinary meatus accurately in order to insert the catheter into the urethra.